My Strange TV Obsessions: Summer 2012

Summer usually means that all the good, primetime TV shows are on hiatus. For me, it means that I finally can catch up with the shows I missed during the busy academic year!

Apparently I'll watch anything...because these five TV shows are about as different from each other as you can get. Here's the shows I started watching at the beginning of summer and recommend to others.

1. Downton Abbey

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Nope, it's not Downtown Abbey, it's Downton Abbey. And it's amazing. It's a period drama drama from BBC about a family trying to marry off their eldest daughter, who is heir to the family's fortune. You'd think the show would be a little dry, but it's not at all.

What keeps me watching is that the show focuses both on the wealthy family and their servants. You really see the contrast between the two classes. Oh, and McGonagall is in it (Dame Maggie Smith). Though the first season starts right after the Titanic sank in April 1912, the second takes place during World War I and the third will cover the Roaring Twenties.

2. How I Met Your Mother

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I first started watching it during its first or second season, and I thought it would just be a copycat of Friends. I mean, you have to admit, they both have the same premise...six friends in the late twenties, living in New York City. Where have we heard that before?

But it's such a different show than Friends. I feel as if it's smarter, more heartfelt. The characters have progressed so much from Season 1 to Season 7. After the season finale, I knew I had to rewatch all the episodes again. Thankfully, they're all available on Netflix, yay!

Now if we just knew who the mother was...

3. Girls

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Ok, yeah, it's hipster. Yeah, the girls are rich and can get a bit annoying. But I feel like these girls are a good portrayal of our generation. The show follows the lives of these four girls who are living in New York City and are struggling with their jobs and love lives. Though I'm still in college, I can relate to all of them.

4. Mad Men

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I've been hearing about Mad Men for years, so I knew I had to start watching it. In a weird way it reminds me of Downton Abbey--both are period pieces and serialized dramas. The costumes for both are amazing too. I'm not very far into Mad Men yet, but so far I love it.

5. Baggage

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It's the guilty pleasure show of all guilty pleasure shows. My parents got the GSN channel while I was away at college, so when I came back I discovered this little gem of a television show. Seriously, it's amazing. Three contestants, who are competing for a date, each have a small, medium, and large piece of baggage, each containing something weird or a bad habit the person has (like the one above, "I spoon feed my puppies at restaurants".) Whoever wins is the one whom the date thinks is the least bizarre, based on their baggage. It sounds confusing, but you just have to watch it!

Are any of you watching any good shows this summer?
--Becky